1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a power supply device that includes a battery block constructed of plurality of battery cells, and a vehicle using this power supply device. The present invention relates more particularly to a power supply device that is installed on an electric vehicle such as hybrid car and electric car and suitable as a power supply for supplying electric power to an electric motor for driving the vehicle, and a vehicle using this power supply device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A number of battery cells are serially connected to each other to increase the output voltage whereby increasing the output electric power of vehicle power supply device. A power supply device has been developed which includes battery blocks each of which is constructed of a number of rectangular battery cells that are arranged side by side whereby increasing the volumetric charge density of the power supply device. This type of battery block is constructed as a module. In the case where a plurality of battery modules are connected to each other in series and/or in parallel, the power supply device can be provided capable of meeting different voltage and current specifications.
Also, a high-functionality module (i.e., so-called functional module or intelligent module) has been proposed. A circuit board is provided in each high-functionality battery module in order to individually control the battery capacity and voltage of this battery module, the temperature of battery cells in this battery module, and the like (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. JP 2010-146,991 A).
In the case where a number of connected functional modules are connected to each other, it will be necessary for functional modules to exchange data through data communications or the like. To achieve this data communications, it is necessary assign individual IDs to the functional modules so that the functional module can be distinguished from each other. According to this construction, for example, if a malfunction occurs in one functional module, it is possible to identify the malfunctioned functional module. The following approaches can be conceived which assign IDs to functional modules. For example, each functional module includes a hardware component such as DIP switch or connecting pin that can provide a variable ID number (address) so that IDs can be individually assigned to functional modules. A predetermined ID number is previously assigned to each functional module. Each functional module is constructed to be provided with an ID number by software. In this approach, after functional modules are connected to each other, IDs are incrementally assigned to the functional modules in the connection order. Among these approaches, in the case where ID numbers are assigned by hardware, the work of assigning ID numbers to functional modules is a burden. In particular, as the number of the connected functional modules increase, the burden of the assignment will increase. In the case where predetermined ID numbers are previously assigned to functional modules, it is necessary to assign the ID numbers to the functional modules when the functional modules are produced. For this reason, in this approach, the productivity will be poor. As compared with the approaches, in the case where IDs are assigned to functional modules after the functional modules are connected to each other, the functional modules can be produced in the same manner in terms of hardware, and it is easy to assign the IDs to the functional modules. From this viewpoint, this approach is advantageous. This approach is known in JP 2010-146,991 A.
Also, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. JP 2003-47,111 A
However, in the known functional module, there is a problem that the ID assignment construction is complicated, and the ID assignment process takes a long time.
The present invention is aimed at solving the above problem, and its main object is to provide a power supply device for more flexible ID assignment, and a vehicle using this power supply device.